Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Monday that he was prepared to introduce legislation to “set the stage” for US military intervention in Mexico.
Graham’s comments came after four Americans were kidnapped in the Mexican border city of Matamoros, an area said to be dominated by cartels, and two were found dead. He was asked how he would deal with kidnappings or the cartels in general, and said he would get “tough.”
“I would put Mexico on notice,” the hawkish senator told Fox News host Jesse Waters. “If you continue to give safe haven to drug dealers, then you are an enemy of the United States.”
Graham said he agreed with former Attorney General Bill Barr, who wants to declare the cartels “foreign terrorist organizations.” Barr wrote in The Wall Street Journal last week that the US should take military action against cartels.
Barr expressed support for a joint resolution proposed by Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and Michael Waltz (R-FL) that would authorize the president to use military force against “those responsible for trafficking fentanyl or a fentanyl-related substance into the United States or carrying out other related activities that cause regional destabilization in the Western Hemisphere.” So far, the resolution has 16 Republican cosponsors.
Graham said he wants to put forward a bill that would designate cartels as terror organizations. “I’m going to introduce legislation, Jesse, to make certain Mexican drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations under US law and set the stage to use military force if necessary to protect America from being poisoned by things coming out of Mexico,” he said.
Other Republicans have called for military intervention in Mexico, which would be a dramatic escalation of America’s decades-old war on drugs. “We should strategically strike and take out the Mexican Cartels, not the Mexican government or their people, but the Mexican Cartels which control them all,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wrote on Twitter on Monday.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday warned the US against military intervention in his country. He said his government was “working and cooperating” with US authorities against cartels but wouldn’t allow “foreign countries” to intervene.
Graham loves war. Maybe he’d like to go fight one?
“This is your rifle, this is your gun, this is for fighting, this is for fun”…. An oldie but a goody.
If the senator is so concerned about criminal gangs on our borders, perhaps he could for once advocate a little less about foreign wars and more for defending our actual borders.
The inly reason for the drama is the absolute hate our establishment has towards Mexicam president.
And good Senatoor is complaining about Russia interv ninng after Ukraine killed tens of thousands Russians. That does not count. Four Americans does.
The US needs to overthrow its current duopoly politicians. Graham reminds me of the late John McCain that thought one war was not good enough and wanted more and more wars until the people in the war zones were extinct or until the world was extinct.
The word “overthrow” is too strong and a bit incendiary. But I agree that South Carolina should be looking for qualified candidates to run against him.
I have news for you, folks. If Graham wants a war, he usually gets it.
But wait, does Mexico have oil or …lithium? https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Mexico-Moves-To-Nationalize-Its-Lithium-Reserves.html
The US tried war with Mexico once and it didn’t work out very well.
And forget the BS about stealing California from Maximilian, Mexico’s owner; that’s a different story.
It did work out well, for the Americans, not so for the Mexicans. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo sealed their fate, and so went the Southwest.
The Southwest is lovely this time of the year…
So you believe Mexico should have kept the border of its former owner when it was the private property of Maximilian. You must also believe Mexico owned all the original nations such as Hopi, Chumash and Navajo; just to name a few.
Regarding the world today; Mexico is a strong and rich north American nation the US would not want to tangle with.
Iran has lithium. Estimated to be 10% (current estimate) of the total world’s known amount of the material. Could be more as more examination is made. Benefits China. We are probably going to try to keep out Southern neighbors from selling the lithium to China. So, plans may be cooked up to attack Iran, or signal Israel to do so to stop that.
Legalize all narcotics and make them free with medical attention so there is no profit motive for drug pushers.
The problem is simple to cure. There is no such thing as a happy drug addict. Even nicotine addicts are not happy with destroying themselves.
Would still have black market.
A black market would have to compete with free from the doctor. Not much money in that.
You mean compete with Pfizer?
I’ve been advocating that for years, Garrett.
Go to the clinic and get your safe dose of heroin or whatever. Drug-related crime would drop like a rock.
As far as nicotine goes, I’m happy enough to theoretically destroy myself, since I ain’t never gonna stop smoking! Quitting cigarettes would be like losing my best friend!
I so appreciate your honesty Gypsy. 🙂
Ditto that!
I roll my own and only use organic tobacco, no additives…
Me as well Donna, or I couldn’t afford to smoke!
You and I have known the simple truth that doctor supplied free drugs takes the money out of the market. That elected officials have ignored this for years smells of rats serving in congress.
I quit tobacco several times and finally succeeded (used to roll my own with organic tobacco). “Outgrow it” was the handle someone gave me to hang on to.
Good job Garrett!
Truth is that I’ve suffered depression my entire life; sometimes a cigarette’s the only thing that makes me feel better.
I’ve quit a few times myself but never could stay quit.
Oh, us invading Mexico while still giving pious speeches about the need to risk nuclear war to “stop Putin” would be perfect.
Ponder the full frontal absurdity of Graham’s plan to “make certain Mexican drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations”, perhaps with a wave of his magic wand. Why doesn’t he instead use his wand to turn all the drug cartels into something good, like book clubs or chambers of commerce? Oh, Lindsey … let’s hope you don’t get the chance to bring to Mexico the same peace and stability you’ve brought to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Ukraine, because Mexico isn’t an ocean away, it’s right on our border. Indeed, what are the chances Graham is actually a Russian agent?
I prefer full frontal nudity to full frontal absurdity. A Russian agent? The mystery and intrigue continues to build…
You can have both.
Donna, especially when it’s you and I with our smokin’ hot bods 😉
For Graham, the only two countries US hasn’t bombed are Mexico and Canada. Why neglect them?
Lindsey, it’s called supply and DEMAND. You can’t bomb the problem away numbnuts.
“Numbnuts”? You are being too kind.
How about “no-nuts” Donna? 😉
Touche!
Were these 4 men in a white minivan DEA? The story given for their trip seems absurd on its face.
Now, that would be the start of US demise, another words self destruction…!
Perhaps Mexico should consider military intervention against the drug users here that fuel the trade.
Exactly V. If there were no market, Mexico wouldn’t be exporting.
Graham reminds me of the school kid who got robbed out of his lunch money all the time.
There must be something in the water in South Carolina otherwise how does this racist,warmonger keep.getting elected or does this apply to the entire South.
North Carolina too, of which Ikki Haley was governor… ( thanks Mary!)
The cartels where financed and supported by the CIA ect for decades Escobar / El pacho ect came to power with their help , but that`s the US all over it helps their new best friends into power then when they go off reservation they won`t them gone .
Marjorie Taylor Greene rightly opposes Biden’s proxy war in Ukraine but wrongly wants US intervention in Mexico to take out the drug cartels. She, like many politicians of the duopoly parties believes in doing one or more bad things for every good thing.
Her stance on Ukraine is pure political games. the pervert and the horse’s mouth knew the resolution had no chance of passage. Would cost shareholders of hefty dividends, and that cannot happen.
It sounds like a bad “made for t.v. movie”.
Hey, what the heck. Why not invade Mexico? After all, we’re on a roll… First, a proxy war against Russia, then a proxy war against China, then a proxy war against Georgia …, all added to our ongoing proxy war against Syria, ….
The real question for me is, who’s going to be our proxy for Mexico? Come on, uncle Joe, fess up!
That’s the ticked OB1, that’s the ticket. 😉
Lindsey, It may be safer to buy x-military mercinaries to locate and destroy drug labs?
Obrador should let Putin put some bases in Mexico.
It has always seemed to me that Mexico needs someone like Elliot Ness to establish a well funded police presence that would be considered untouchable by organized criminals.
I’m just wondering if graham might have some kind of elderly dementia?…
Still, it could be interesting to go to war in Mexico. I believe it has been done a few times before…
He’s being blackmailed by the PTB. How else can you explain all his warmongering votes?
It appears Ukraine might be getting close to negotiations and we will need another war to ramp up……..so why not Mexico?
Lindsey is such a toughie; what is he covering up? Wouldn’t a fake girlfriend be easier or just getting out of that closet?
No one cares who you love, but we do care that your solution to everything is to bomb it.
You think the US border is being overrun with ‘undocumented aliens’ now, just wait and see the tsunami of humanity heading north from Mexico when US bombs start falling on their country. If we put boots on the ground we should probably stock up on some more body bags while we’re at it; we haven’t done so well lately against light infantry and militia carrying small arms.
If the US invades Mexico, Mexicans won’t come to the US. They will go to other places or join their military to fight the US illegal alien invaders.
Our politicians are all spineless morons, Graham a leading figure in the low IQ but high ego department.
He get keep getting re-elected—that is the scary bit
The fentanyl-issue reminds me of what Mr. Bush of Anheuser-Bush told the news media after prohibition had ended. He was asked “why did you illegally import whiskey from Canada?” His answer: “you wanted it. I provided it”.
While I”m not much of a Lindsay Graham fan, he has an interesting idea. Not to “declare war on Mexico” as some say, but to target terrorist cartel groups that currently have de facto control over large portions of the Mexican state. Note: a “monopoly on violence” is what defines a “state.” When that is no longer operational, you have a pirate haven.
Why are stateless cartels terrorists? Not merely for smuggling. But smuggling and manufacturing poisonous pills which are falsely sold as otherwise much safer (but illegal drugs).
Consensus estimates say that annually, over 200,000 Americans (and likely far more) are lethally poisoned by fentanyl which comes from Mexican cartels. This isn’t mere incorrect drug labeling. Consider that the 9/11 attacks only killed around 2,600 American citizens. We then declared the Taliban a terror group and invaded (they are now back in charge, absent al Qaeda.)
Since Mexico is now a proven failed State harboring cartel poisoners killing thousands of Americans, why not take them out? Mexico can’t or won’t do that. Thomas Jefferson ordered the US Navy to wipe out Tripoli pirates preying on European (and some American) Mediterranean shipping.
Limited military strikes against cartel personnel and property in Mexican pirate havens isn’t imperialism. It is actually an idea to protect Americans from being poisoned and killed.
It is one of the few national military self defense rationales which can apply. There is no safe use of fentanyl outside of a surgical theater. Let’s consider Graham’s idea seriously.
It might “one of the few national military self defense rationales which can apply” if it wasn’t a terrorist organization (the US government) trying to apply it as part of an ongoing terror campaign (“the war on drugs”). Continuing a war you started by escalating it against organizations your policies created, is not “self defense.”
Criminal cartels weren’t created by the War on Drugs. But they did get rich off of them. So what does Mr. Libertarian here say about sellers of “drugs” who mislabel or don’t label poison in their wares? Just yap about the War on Drugs? Do outlaws get a break when they deliberately poison customers? I wouldn’t support Sen. Graham’s proposal absent the intentional killing (or indifference, negligence) of thousands of Americans. But you think that outlaws and armed cartels should get a pass? There is a sad strain in some libertarian “thought” that regards outlaws as heroes, no matter how many innocent people (or even duped customers) are killed.
The cartels exist because of the US war on drugs.
Absent the US war on drugs, people who wanted heroin would go buy it at in known strength, quantity, and purity at Walgreens, Where it would be correctly labeled and not poisoned.
I don’t think outlaws should get a pass. I think that US drug warriors should share cells with their cartel co-conspirators.
Right on Thomas!
The cartels exist because of the US war on drugs.
Absent the US war on drugs, people who wanted heroin would go buy it at in known strength, quantity, and purity at Walgreens, Where it would be correctly labeled and not poisoned.
I don’t think outlaws should get a pass. I think that US drug warriors should share cells with their cartel co-conspirators.
An evasive word dance, but your argument relies solely on the premise that anything the US Govt has ever done nullifies a self defense rationale on cartel fentanyl poisoning of American drug purchasers. Isn’t this merely victim blaming? Your dumb kid can die of unlabeled poison because you, Mr. Knapp, didn’t stop the War on Drugs? Cartels get a pass on everything?
This is the silly kind of non argument that shallow libertarians use. Cartels have carte blanche in the US, is that it? Murder, kidnapping, robbery? Wow. “Crime cartels are morally superior to the US Govt.”
I would think that even if you regard the US Govt. as another “crime cartel” you would acknowledge their right to self defense of their protected members against hostile crime cartels killing them with unlabeled poison. Your “moral logic” here is thus far unexplained.
I don’t like the cartels.
The cartels exist because of the US war on drugs.
End the war on drugs, there’s no profit in drugs for the cartels.
Don’t end the war on drugs, you’ll always have the cartels.
Perhaps try to re-read the last sentence of what you just wrote in order to fully appreciate the sheer breathtaking magnitude of your truly spellbinding insight, Thomas.
The bottom line is – all through its history, any kind of wars conducted by the ever so glorious us of a have benefitted the bad guys first and foremost, leaving the good guys in tatters or worse. And the chances that the unspoken golden rule of American foreign policy would change under papa don biden’s most executive “leadership” are pretty much in the theoretically impossible negative territory.
For as long as The United States of America exists in its present form https://williamblum.org/books/freeing-the-world-to-death – there will NEVER be any peace ANYWHERE on our long suffering Planet. PERIOD.
I’m all for getting the US out of North America.
And Syria?
Yes, end the religion of State Worship and all will be well. This is an evasion, not a response to cartel poisoning of American drug users. Legal recreational drugs are heavily taxed, and cartels are still growing or importing pot. If your response to all current problems with criminal gangs is to make everything legal, not gonna happen. You still haven’t replied to my comment that you seem to give Mexican drug cartels a pass on poisoning customers solely due to your “origin story” that the Original Sin was the US war on drugs.
But your lack of actual argumentation here is telling. No point in arguing with a Utopian.
I doubt that the Mexican cartels are poisoning people. What the Mexican cartels are doing is smuggling fentanyl into the US and selling it to dealers, who then do a poor job of measuring it for mixing with heroin, and who also do don’t properly decontaminate surfaces that other drugs are also worked with or stored on.
I’d like to see the cartels out of business. Which would happen about five minutes after Walgreens could stock any drug people wanted to buy
I grew up in what eventually became meth territory, and when I moved back to my hometown after a decade elsewhere, all the characters I knew from high school would end up being bad news were selling a low-quality version of stuff that was commonly legally bought 40 years earlier (and that’s now being prescribed like candy as e.g. “Adderall”), and spending half their time in jail, instead of the speed freaks just being able to go to 7-11.
You gotta be shittin’ me. I’m not saying that I never ingested illegal drugs as a young woman ( mostly pot, hash and LSD) but anyone who uses a drug as dangerous as non-prescribed fentanyl and suffers the effects of it gets exactly what they deserve.
It’s not as though this country doesn’t have clinics for drug and alcohol abuse.
Part of the problem, presumably, is cross-contamination.
Suppose you buy your weed from a guy who also sells coke and heroin, and he uses fentanyl to cut the heroin so he can use a lot less heroin and a lot more inert filler and make more money per heroin sale.
Is he using the same scale to weigh all those things?
If he gets high on his own supply, did he inject himself with fentanyl-cut heroin and then shove a quarter ounce of weed in the baggie to sell to you instead of throwing the baggie away?
While I have problems with the medical marijuana regimes and how they’re set up, there’s one good thing about them (and presumably in the legal recreational states as well): You can walk into a store (in medical states, if you have a medical marijuana card, which I do not but a family member just got) and choose weed in very specific quantities (to the gram), and of known purity (this percentage of THC, that percentage of CBD, etc.). It’s not some dipsh*t weighing out whatever ditch weed he has handy on the same scale he just used to parcel out grams of coke and teenths of meth.
The problem with fentanyl — as is widely reported — is that it is added to other drugs and not labeled as such. Since this is highly toxic even in small doses users unwittingly get poisoned and often die. Is that what they “deserve”? Analogy would be selling illegal moonshine adulterated with lethal amounts of wood alcohol not disclosed to buyers.
I’m shocked he is proposing something so close to home. Normally he has a minimum of four thousand miles radius requirement.
Sen. Lindsey Graham favors intervention in:__________. Fill in the blank with any place on the planet.
Mexico: time for Russian nukes at the Amerikkkan border!